Where are located on Earth? Many students can tell me what continent, country and state we live in but do not have a clue where that is in relation to other places and have a much harder time as we narrow in on our location on a map. This lesson combines geography and the way we describe were we are in the world.

As an introduction to this lesson, I ask students a simple question: Where are we? Students look around, a little confused and then attempt to answer, "In the classroom?" "In a school?" and then jump much farther away and say, "In ______ state?" "ON EARTH!", one students yells.

I explain that we are in all of those places and a few more. Today, we are going to discover were we are and use correct language to describe where we are in the world.

I hand students a 6 strips of paper that is about 11 inches long and 3-4 inches wide. They are going to lay the strips, long ways, over lapping one strip at a time and then fold the layered strips in the center to create a layered booklet with 12 panels. You can staple them at the top as they are working or at the end.

I have then write their name on the top page with the title, "Where in the World am I?"

I display Google Earth and model how to write the name Earth and draw Earth. There are multiple categories and for each category, I ask students where they think we're going next as we get closer to our classroom.

Resources

After students labeled each section of their paper with the correct location and drawn a diagram or image that represents that place, I modeled how to use those words to describe where we are. I said, "We in classroom #____, in _____ Elementary School, which is in the neighborhood of ________ and __________, which is in the city of ____________, which is in _______ county, which is in the state of ____________, in the United State of America, in North America, on the planet Earth.

To reinforce the use of the words and putting it together so it makes sense, I ask students to volunteer to describe were we are by using the words on their paper. Students got really excited, almost considered it some sore of tongue twister. However, they were able to correct themselves when they got stuck. After a few students tried it out loud, I asked everyone to share it with their seat partner so that everyone had a chance to try to say it correctly.